Key Findings

1. One of the obstacles to safely reopening Washington’s schools is the lack of a clear and transparent COVID metric.

2. SB 5037 proposes a COVID metric that is based on international health protocols and has been safely implemented by many countries and states in the nation.

3. Only 63,000 students, or five percent, of Washington’s 1.1 million public school students are receiving in-person instruction.

4. Most of Washington’s students are receiving only remote, virtual instruction, widely understood to be inferior to in-person instruction.

5. Washington’s public school students are falling behind their peers in the rest of the country and in other countries.

6. The harm of the COVID school shutdowns has fallen hardest on Washington’s low-income, minority students.

Introduction

SB 5037 is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator John Braun (R-Centralia) and Senator Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah). It would create a new system of COVID-19 metrics which school officials would use to reopen public schools to in-person instruction using safety guidelines. The new system this bill proposes is based upon the public health recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Twenty countries are using WHO health metrics to safely reopen their schools to children, including the countries of Denmark, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, and France.

Read the full Legislative Memo here.